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It can be both, and there's no hypocrisy involved. Part of the job of a public official, and of a government and a society in general, is to legislate in the public interest. As citizens, it's both our right and our duty to guide our government and our society toward the kind of society in which we wish to live. This includes things with fairly broad appeal, like "lets not kill and eat people" all the way up to more controversial things, like "lets hate gay people".

If a mayor write a similarly worded article about Starbucks but "because Jesus", but also did not actually forbid them, I would be upset because I want mayors of major (and heck, minor) cities in my country to have beliefs about society that generally align with my own.

For the record, liquor stores, strip clubs, porn shops, movie theaters and other businesses are in fact actually outright banned on a regular basis for moral reasons - not just made the target of nasty public letters - so it's not really like we're talking about a level playing field.